Ministry Professor, King Scholar to Speak at Commencement

Date:December 10, 2012

Dr. Terriel R. Byrd, professor of Urban Christian Ministry, will be the featured speaker at Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Fall Commencement at 2 p.m. Saturday, December 15 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.

The event is open to graduates and guests who hold tickets. More than 225 candidates for associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the West Palm Beach, Orlando and Wellington campuses will participate in the ceremony.

Dr. Byrd, who serves as the director of the Evening Ministries Program at Palm Beach Atlantic, joined the University in 1999. He has served as workshop facilitator for the Cultural Sensitivity Seminar in Jacksonville, Fla., and was a member of the strategic planning committee meeting for the African-American church division of the Florida Baptist Convention. He is the 2012-2013 president of the African American Caucus of the Academy of Homiletics of North America. His authorship and presentations include the “History of the First Black Church,” “The Non-African Perception of the African American Religious Experience” and “Inter-ethnic Cultural Communication,” presented for the American Association of Behavioral Sciences and National Association of African-American Studies.

He has published extensively with the Baptist Press and published the History of the Union Baptist Church, now archived at the Cincinnati Historical Society Library. He is among the contributors to the Preaching God’s Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary series in 2011-2013.

Dr. Byrd is noted scholar on the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He presented "Martin Luther King Jr.'s Evangelical Liberalism: An Approach to Social Justice" at the National Association of Christian Social Workers, and "King the Churchman: An Examination of the Ecclesiology of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.," for the North American Academy of Homiletics. His first full length book, I Shall Not Be Moved, was an international bestseller. His second book, By This Shall We Be Known: Interpreting the Voice and Message of Dr. King, was released in October, 2011.

He was recognized in Marquis 2011 Who’s Who in America, and the 2004-2005 "Who's Who Among America's Teachers," honoring the nation's most respected teachers. In 2007, he received the Charles and Hazel Corts Award for Outstanding Teaching. Dr. Byrd currently serves on the board of Urban Youth Impact.

Dr. Byrd holds degrees from Cincinnati Bible College and Seminary (A.S.); Miami University (B.A., M.A.); United Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and The Union Institute (Ph.D.). He has more than 18 years’ experience as a senior pastor and previously served as campus minister at two universities in Ohio.